She had every reason to believe that it was for her that he struggled daily to gain a footing in his chosen profession.

When success came, when there was no reason that Marian could see why they might not have begun life together, there had come a subtle change in John, and that change had developed so rapidly that in a few weeks' time, she was forced to admit that the companionship and loving attentions that once had been all hers were now all Eileen's.
She sat in the train, steadily carrying her mile after mile farther from her home, and tried to think what had happened and how and why it had happened.

She could not feel that she had been wrong in her estimate of John Gilman.

Her valuation of him had been taught her by her father and mother and by Doctor and Mrs.Strong and by John Gilman himself.

Dating from the time that Doctor Strong had purchased the property and built a home in Lilac Valley beside Hawthorne House, Marian had admired Eileen and had loved her.